Graduation Date
12-2018
Document Type
Master's Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Department or Program
Graduate Humanities
Department or Program Chair
Joan Baranow, PhD
First Reader
Leslie Ross, PhD
Second Reader
Gay Lynch, PhD
Abstract
Humanities scholarship, the result of millennia of deep reflection on the human condition, informs the practices and principles that structure the way we approach our investigation of the human experience. As we consider the ways in which the humanities canon shapes the relationship of what we include as “knowledge” and how we value it, the continued exploration of how meaning and value are perceived in traditional knowledge systems and their contributions to our current models of thinking and process is vital. Through an investigation of relationships between Native song and Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK), I explore the importance of Native song as just one example of the powerful knowledge systems that synthesize and amplify the voices and visions of traditional knowledge, Native sciences and worldviews. As such, Native songs offer a path towards understanding diverse knowledge systems and what they have to offer to the worlds of critical analysis and academic rigor, as well as the possibilities of strengthening the larger society as a whole.